Hi,

The DFSG Team have agreed that all packages entering Debian MUST have a
debian/copyright file which is in the "DEP-5" format.  I.e. the first line
should contain:

Format: https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/

And the rest of the file should conform fully to that format.

While lintian will run checks *if* the file format appears to be DEP-5, it does
not warn when the file is clearly not in that format, which is what we would
like to see added as a check.

Along with making this mandatory for packages entering Debian as of now, we do
also want to work towards *all* existing packages in Debian having a DEP-5
copyright in order to assist with software BOM initiatives and other automated
license analyses.

Thanks,
Andrew McMillan.

DFSG Licensing and New Packaging Team

Hello,

Bug #1147483 in lintian reported by you has been fixed in the
Git repository and is awaiting an upload. You can see the commit
message below and you can check the diff of the fix at:

https://salsa.debian.org/lintian/lintian/-/commit/1ee68baec6bec2329ac1bef29a7d785b2746248a
The requested check is present already. The DFSG team wants the check to be even
more strict hence upgrading this to warning. Further confirmed with the DFSG team
over IRC discussion.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

(this message was generated automatically)
-- 
Greetings

https://bugs.debian.org/1147483

Hello,

Bug #1147483 in lintian reported by you has been fixed in the
Git repository and is awaiting an upload. You can see the commit
message below and you can check the diff of the fix at:

https://salsa.debian.org/lintian/lintian/-/commit/1ee68baec6bec2329ac1bef29a7d785b2746248a
The requested check is present already. The DFSG team wants the check to be even
more strict hence upgrading this to warning. Further confirmed with the DFSG team
over IRC discussion.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

(this message was generated automatically)
-- 
Greetings

https://bugs.debian.org/1147483

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
lintian, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1147483@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Louis-Philippe Véronneau <pollo@debian.org> (supplier of updated lintian package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2026 12:38:47 -0400
Source: lintian
Architecture: source
Version: 2.141.0
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Debian Lintian Maintainers <lintian-maint@debian.org>
Changed-By: Louis-Philippe Véronneau <pollo@debian.org>
Closes: 1017064 1145776 1147142 1147187 1147483
Changes:
 lintian (2.141.0) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   [ Louis-Philippe Véronneau ]
   * Remove deprecated XS-Python-Version and X-Python-Version fields
 .
   [ Nilesh Patra ]
   * Lintian::Screen::Python::Egg::Metadata - Do not check for `WHEEL` in
     `dist-info` (Closes: #1147187)
   * Lintian::Check::Documentation - Drop `dist-info` related files from
     `NOT_DOCUMENTATION_FILE_REGEXES` and fix condition for exclusion of these.
     Thanks to Lucas Nussbaum <lucas@debian.org>
   * Rename Golang/ImportPath.pm -> Golang/ModulePath.pm to incorporate for
     more module path related checks
   * new tags: "go-library-package-does-not-include-version" and
     "go-source-package-does-not-include-version" (Closes: #1147142)
   * new tag: deprecated-debian-control-field (Closes: #1145776)
   * Change severity level of `no-dep5-copyright` to `warning` (Closes:
     #1147483)
   * Unknown.pm, data: Add XB- prefixes for binary stanza fields in `data/` and
     remove XB-* prefix in known binary fields checking for unknown fields
     (Closes: #1017064)
   * tags/tests/checks: Minor fixes in URLs (See: #1146466)
 .
   [ Scott Talbert ]
   * Add more GHC path exclusions to RPATH check
 .
   [ Lucas Nussbaum ]
   * Trim spelling text with builtin::trim
   * Remove unused ELF section header fields
   * Drop bignum for the ELF section Size decoding
 .
   [ Sylvestre Ledru ]
   * Precompile the provider regexes for Javascript/Embedded.pm, Php/Embedded.pm
     and Php/Pear/Embedded.pm.
   * Documentation.pm: match the file name lists as compiled regexes
   * Spelling.pm: gate the multi-word corrections on a single regex
Checksums-Sha1:
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 c05d05f10626fed4eedb8397e725faf0170f2634 2079044 lintian_2.141.0.tar.xz
 3b7d95797cf3b473af90b48806bd7456dc0a831d 21231 lintian_2.141.0_amd64.buildinfo
Checksums-Sha256:
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 c92ae6ca1e42bc9800292e0e108433c769f89c524531b9acb63603d1d4b134b5 2079044 lintian_2.141.0.tar.xz
 4e9316668b4562dffeb1e9d89d2a8323f64ef9bde349f75e575042063d970194 21231 lintian_2.141.0_amd64.buildinfo
Files:
 bbe1099f86ce349acb30e38f30d5ce08 3694 devel optional lintian_2.141.0.dsc
 e3b56954d0f301cda8e4607632fbde66 2079044 devel optional lintian_2.141.0.tar.xz
 581d1dfb7b1fa4eae49858d67a226340 21231 devel optional lintian_2.141.0_amd64.buildinfo
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